Monticchiello - Heaven in a Hill Top Village

Heaven on a hill top is how we describe our week in Monticchiello



Our home for a week in the autumn of 2006

It was as we had imagined – the winding road through undulating hills, the roadside bordered by cypress trees. You’ve witnessed the scene in every typical Tuscan rural poster.


We bought this poster while in Tuscany, it sits on our family room wall to remind us of "heaven on a hilltop."



The only entrance to our village



We parked the C3 outside the arched door of our villa with anticipation of what was behind the oak doors.

Our kitchen

We didn’t realize it at the time but that road, photographed and painted so many times, was the road that took us to our idyllic Monticchiello villa in the beautiful Val d’ Orcia.



The view from our bedroom window over looking the olive grove.

 Over the next few weeks on Wednesdays we’ll take you with us on what was a most memorable week for us.
Monticchiello is nestled between the larger hilltop villages of Montepulciano, Montalcino and Pienza. Siena and the towers of San Gimignano are only day trips away and some villages of Umbria are also close by. There’s so much to see and the week we were there wasn’t enough.

From the diary: Sue speaking

Saturday October 14, 2006.

Monticchiello is finally reached – Heaven in a hilltop village.

Barbara, the owner of our villa for the week seems a lovely person. I rang when we were lost, and with good humor she got us here. Very friendly and nice to our son Andrew.

The apartment is lovely, Andrew has his own bedroom and bathroom. The villa has been renovated with an eye to authenticity. The bench top, splash back and huge sink are travertine marble.

The colors amaze me. They are so soft that they look like they have been photographed through gauze. That is, except for the setting sun which is soooo orange.

An evening stroll in the village before coffee and port, and bed.

Our day finished early after the stresses, highs and lows of leaving Rome early that morning with our driver Fangio. It had been a very long day, highs being Ostica Antica (see last Wednesday’s post) and arriving at Monticchiello.

After a long day it was time to get a good night's sleep before a week of Tuscan discovery.